Arizona shooting suspect allowed to buy gun, despite his past

Drug abusers and addicts are legally prohibited from buying guns, but even under current federal law, there was nothing to stop Jared Loughner, the suspect in the Tucson-area shooting rampage, from legally buying a handgun despite a history of illegal-drug use.

Few people are ever prevented from buying firearms for being a drug abuser or drug addict.

Of the 820,888 people denied purchase of a firearm from Nov. 30, 1998, to Dec. 31, 2010, less than 8 percent were rejected because they unlawfully used drugs or were addicted to drugs, according to FBI statistics.

Loughner is accused of shooting U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head Jan. 8 during a rampage near Tucson that left six people dead and 12 others wounded.

About two years ago, in December 2008, Loughner tried to enlist in the Army, but he was rejected after he admitted he frequently used marijuana, according to an Army official. A year before that, he was cited for possession of drug paraphernalia after deputies found a marijuana pipe and other items in a car he was riding in.

In addition to having a drug-use background, two months before he bought the gun authorities said was used in the massacre, Pima Community College officials questioned his mental health as they forced him out of school.

Those who have been adjudicated mentally ill also are prevented from buying guns under federal law.

"There's no suitability test. If we look at this fellow in Tucson, he came close on two grounds. He had criminal problems. He had mental-health conduct problems, but they never crossed the lines to where he was prohibited," said Gabriel Chin, a law professor at the University of Arizona. "Even if somebody had noticed or said something, he was legally allowed weapons under Arizona and federal law."

Authorities say Loughner bought the 9mm Glock semiautomatic handgun used in the shooting on Nov. 30.

Loughner's drug history did not prevent him from buying the gun for a number of reasons, including not having a criminal conviction and vague rules for reporting drug users to the FBI.

Under federal law, all gun purchasers are first required to undergo background checks. But information about a person's drug abuse or addiction is rarely added to the instant-background-check database, as required, because regulations defining who actually falls into that category and who should be added are unclear.

Loughner's drug-related arrest in 2007 was likely never reported to the FBI because he was not convicted of a drug offense.

Of the 6.4 million people actively barred from buying firearms under the database, only 2,092, or 0.03 percent, are listed as unlawful drug users or drug addicts, according to FBI statistics. There are 435,022 convicted criminals, which can include people convicted of drug offenses, actively barred from buying guns in the database, according to the FBI figures.

The U.S. Department of Defense would not comment specifically on Loughner's case, but the Army typically reports drug matters only involving service members, not recruits, to the FBI. "Civilian walk-ins to our recruiting stations are not subject to our reporting," Monica Bland, a Defense spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

In Arizona, gun buyers are typically subjected to an instant background check using only a federal database, Chin said.

Even if Loughner's drug history had been included in the database, it still may not have prevented him from legally buying a gun because the incidents occurred more than a year before he purchased one - outside the time limit in which drug records show up on background checks. David Kopel, research director at the conservative Independence Institute and a law professor at Denver University, said there are about six states that allow local law-enforcement officers to block a gun sale based on their information about a person, Kopel said. Arizona is not among those states.

If Pima County authorities had a basis for doubting Loughner's fitness for a gun, including drug use, such an approach might have stopped a legal sale, he said.

"Now, if you're a criminal, the fact that you can't get a carry permit is not going to stop you, especially if you're intending this will be one of the last things you ever do," Kopel said.

Last week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, head of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, called for a clearer and more comprehensive list of those with drug problems.

"That is one of the reasons why, as of December 31, only 2,092 people were listed in the background-check database as an addict or abuser, even though thousands and thousands of people with drug records should have been in that database," Bloomberg said.

A Bloomberg aide said the shooting also showed how federal agencies need to do a better job of sharing information.

"In this terrible tragedy, we've got a man that the Army said 'No, thank you' to because they deemed him a habitual drug user," said John Feinblatt, Bloomberg's chief policy adviser and criminal-justice coordinator. "We don't connect the dots. . . . If he is not fit to serve in the armed forces, he shouldn't be fit to possess a gun."